NewsClips: Oh, Come ON.

This NewsClip has nothing to do with my ancestors; it just happened to be at the top of a page that did. But the headline was an eyecatcher:

BELIEVE MICE CAUSED $3,000 WHITESTONE FIRE

[Aside: Don’t you love that old-school use of a verb with an implied subject? I used to be a copyeditor. I notice this stuff.]

Anyway: I laughed out loud. Fortunately I had already swallowed my mouthful of coffee.

“What is it?”asked Mr. Archaeologist from behind his smartphone. I read him the headline.

“Oh, they mean the mice chewed through a wire and caused an electrical fire. Happens all the time.” Mr. Archaeologist is a casualty actuary. He makes it his business to know how disasters happen, whether caused by mice or men.

But he was wrong this time!

Fire which gutted the kitchen of John W. Clancy, Twelfth avenue and 150th street, Whitestone, while Mrs. Clancy and her three children were asleep upstairs, was caused by mice igniting matches.

You don’t believe me? Check this out. (And no, it was not even April Fools’ Day.)